Tag Archives: political donations

Posted on11/24/2015|Comments Off on Do you judge your favored candidate by donations?

One of the attractions that supporters have for Donald Trump is that with his wealth, he is not taking money from big donors. He says he is free to do as he pleases, and does not take orders from the big donors. Naturally, if a wealthy person gives megabucks, they tend to want to later receive “favors” from the candidate. Just like ordinary people may send a few dollars to a candidate that holds their views, the big donors do as well.

Bloomberg Business recently posted charts of the donations each candidate has received from July 1 thru Sept 30, 2015. They broke it down to large donations (Over $200 – $2700) and small donations (less than $200). Of course, this data does not include the Super PACs since they must be under separate control.

Some candidates receive almost all of their funds from large donors. We mostly know who those people are. Then there are others who get their support from the “grassroots” folks. Likewise, we can guess who those people are. Just because a candidate receives megabucks from megadonors does not necessarily result in the candidate leading in the polls. Jeb Bush is an example of this.

I made a graph from the Bloomberg data to better compare the relationship of the amount of money being funneled to the candidates. Are you surprised by the top recipient and that she gets 82% of the donations from the rich folks?

Click to enlarge

On the GOP side, many of the big donors are holding back to see what happens as the field narrows. Grassroots people may be doing the same thing. Judging by all the emails I receive from several of the candidates, I’m certain this is happening. It’s unfortunate that it costs so much to run a campaign. We may not always get the best person for the most important job in the U.S., but MONEY TALKS!